Saturday, December 11, 2010

Nobel Absence

The Chinese dissident Mr. Liu Xiaobo, seen in a portrait, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday ( December 10, 2010 ) in Oslo. The chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Thorbjorn Jagland, sat next to an empty chair representing Mr. Liu’s absence at the prize ceremony with Nobel diploma and Nobel medal placed on the empty chair during the ceremony in Oslo City Hall .

Mr. Liu is imprisoned in China and his close family members are forbidden to leave the country. It was the first time in 75 years that no representative of the winner was allowed to make the trip to receive the peace medal, a diploma and the $1.5 million check that comes with it.

Saturday, December 4, 2010

Rita Chowdhury's Chinese Balm to History's Wrongs ?

Chowdhury hopes her work will garner support for the hapless Assamese-Chinese community
Utpal Borpujari
The Times of India Crest Edition ( November 29, 2010 , page 32 )

Makum. The name is as exotic and beautiful as the terrible history it hides. A small, semi-urban habitat nestled amidst tea and oil country in Upper Assam, right at the heart of the region where India had first struck oil way back in the 1860s, it was here that a young girl from nearby Margherita would wonder about the fractured lives of what people told her were the 'Chinese'. As she travelled through the area by bus during the 1970s, she would tell herself, "Someday, I will have to know more about these people. "

Rita Chowdhury, now one of Assam's best-selling authors and winner of the Sahitya Akademi Award two years ago, not only went on to learn about that little community, but unearthed a sad, forgotten and largely unknown story about its forced displacement during the 1962 Indo-China war. Their only crime: they had Chinese looks and names. It didn't matter that they had completely assimilated with the greater Assamese community since the time their forefathers had been brought in as indentured labourers by British tea planters in the early 19th century.

It was her chance discovery of this history of statesponsored deportation of Chinese-origin people in Assam - a chapter that went almost unrecorded - that led to Chowdhury's magnum opus, the 602-page novel Makam, which is into its fourth edition since its publication in early 2010. But for Chowdhury, it's not about the sales figures. It's what India, suspicious of the Chinese then - even if they were its own - did to an unsuspecting and innocent lot.

"The least India can do is apologise to them for the misery inflicted by an insensitive state machinery for just being Chinese at an inconvenient time, " she says. Not only that, she wants the community, members of which are scattered from Hong Kong to Toronto with unhealed wounds in their hearts, to be given back the status of Indian citizens.

During her research, Chowdhury, who weaves history into fiction in her work, found that over 1, 500 Chinese-Assamese had been rounded up on November 19, 1962 and packed off to congested camps at Deuli in Rajasthan before being deported. The government auctioned their properties almost immediately. The author, who is now getting a documentary made on the traumatised families - some of whom had to live without fathers and mothers, husbands and sons, wives and daughters for years on end - has recordings of the deep sadness among members of the community she met during her research trips to Hong Kong and elsewhere.

"They still live with unhealed wounds, still unable to comprehend why they were deported even though they were Indian citizens for generations, " Chowdhury said recently. "They still suffer from a sense of persecution, so much so that they were initially very reluctant to even talk about the past. But once they began, their emotional bond with Assam and India just flowed out. "
One of the Chinese, who preferred not to tell his name on camera during a recording, recounted in pure Assamese, and with the soft Upper Assam lilt, how he was rounded up by police as he was returning home after finishing a paper in a matriculation exam. "I could never complete my matriculation, " he told Chowdhury.

"Most of these Chinese, from mainly the Canton region of China, had been brought by the British to work in India's tea plantations, " the writer says. "Some had ended up in Assam after fighting as soldiers in the Second World War. The extent of their tragedy can be gauged from the fact that many of them had been marrying into other communities when the deportations happened. Many families got broken up as only the Chinese were sent away while their native-Assamese family members were left behind. "

Makam - which in Cantonese means 'the golden horse' - recalls this painful story. Using fiction as the format, it employs two parallel narratives to talk about the wounds harboured by the community and the time when Robert Bruce of the East India Company set foot in Assam in search of what he suspected was tea drunk by the Singpho tribals.

Now, as the Enemy Property Act is being amended, Chowdhury feels it is the right time to try and get at least a sense of justice to the community's members. "It will be virtually impossible to get them back their properties, as they had been auctioned off, but we can apologise to them for the injustice caused to them. We can also try to get them back their Indian citizenship - for those who want to return. Many of those deported, though, have died already, " she says.

Chowdhury met Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi who, she says, has assured her full government support in welcoming the Chinese-Assamese back, even if just as visitors. The subject came up in the state Assembly too, with full support from across the board in looking at it as a humanitarian issue.

"Total war declared by governments on civilians is always in violation of the UN's Fourth Geneva Convention on non-combatants, of which India has been a signatory since December 16, 1949, " Chowdhury says. "When the incident happened, Indian democracy was in its infancy and the media was not as strong as it is today to take a stand, which is why, probably, such a terrible thing happened. " Will the golden horse bring a little succour for a wronged people's pain? There are many who hope it will.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

BREAKFAST

Courtsey : Fox History & Entertainement Channel

FH&E is India's only television channel purely dedicated to history. It stimulates our curiosity to know more about our world. As part of an international award-winning network, FH&E has exclusive access to a vast library of the world's best historical and factual programming offering a high standard of quality in both production value and research - not just from every corner, but about every corner of the world.

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Asiad

The 2010 Asian Games, also known as the XVI Asiad, is a multi-sport event in Guangzhou, China that began on 12 November and finishes on 27 November 2010. Guangzhou is the second Chinese city to host the Games, after Beijing in 1990. A total of 476 events in 42 sports will be contested by athletes, making it the largest event in the history of the Games.The games will also be co-hosted by Dongguan, Foshan and Shanwei, the three neighbouring cities.It will also be the last iteration of the Games to have featured such big events, as the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) have enforced new hosting rules for future games, beginning with the 2014 Games.

Five sporty rams, dubbed "Le Yangyang," will serve as the mascots of the Games.It is a stylized goat, which, in Chinese tradition, is a blessing and brings people luck. It is also a representative symbol of the host city Guangzhou, which is called the "City of Rams" or "City of the Five Rams".

The five rams are named A Xiang (祥), A He (和), A Ru (如), A Yi (意) and Le Yangyang (樂洋洋), and are a play on Guangzhou's nickname, "City of Goats". Moreover, the Chinese character "yang," or "goat," is also an auspicious symbol because, when read together, the Chinese names of the five rams are a message of blessing, literally meaning "harmony, blessings, success and happiness" (祥和如意樂洋洋).

For the first time in history, the opening ceremony was not held inside the stadium; instead, it was held along the Pearl River on Haixinsha Island. Athletes were paraded by boats along the Pearl River.The island holding the ceremony covers 174,000 km. At least 40,000 fireworks shots were used in the event. About 30,000 seated spectators were at the event.Fireworks were then shot out from the Canton Tower. The ceremony featured the water-themed arts show and culture of Guangzhou.The event was choreographed by Chen Weiya (陈维亚) lasting four hours with thousands of performers.

Saturday, October 30, 2010

A C H I P U R

The Chinese temple at Achipur, which is being renovated and the deities in the sanctum sanctorum

The Times Of India , Kolkata, 29 October 2010
Times City , page - 2

Chinese donate 50 Lakhs for temple facelift
Jhimli Mukherjee Pandey & Monotosh Chakraborty


Achipur, a hamlet on the banks of the Hooghly, is just like any other Bengal village. But 300 years ago, this village, 30 km from Taratala, bustled with activity and was dominated by the Chinese. This was the first Chinese settlement in the country. Not a single Chinese can be seen here today, though. But every Chinese New Year’s Day on February 3 and for the rest of that month, Achipur turns into a mini Chinatown. Thousands gather at the Chinese temple here, especially on Sundays, to usher in the new year. This year, members of Kolkata’s Chinese community have pooled in nearly 50 lakh to restore the temple and build boarding and lodging facilities for the community.
East India Company documents show that a Chinese trader called Atchew Tong sailed into the village in the second decade of the 18th century and settled down. Others soon followed him. Atchew started a sugar plantation attached with a mill. The documents dating back to the governor generalship of Warren Hastings state that Atchew was a wealthy sugar trader who was permitted to operate from a vast tract of land off Budge Budge.
No trace of the sugar mill that Atchew ran successfully with at least 100 Chinese men and women remains. However, the “earth and fertility” temple that he built way back in 1718 still remains, though it has badly needed conservation and restoration for a long time. Its roof has developed cracks and leaks, damaging many of the tiny prayer rooms arranged in two rows on the sides of the main temple. Last February, members of the Chinese community, primarily from the Gee Hing Church at Tangra, gathered at the temple and decided that donations would be collected so that the temple could be saved and other facilities built. Word soon spread and Chinese people not only from Tangra but also from near Tiretti Bazar came forward to contribute.
Work on restoring the temple is now on in full swing. A bamboo scaffolding supports the centuries old roof as portions get repaired and conserved. Conservation architects have been roped in for the job. Even the floor had been damaged because of damp and is being completely being done up with expensive marble. “We are extremely happy that people have come forward and donated freely so that we could organise the restoration and conservation on such a grand scale. While the church initiated the project, it is actually a community project. It is our oldest landmark and we have deep respect for the place and the temple, which is also special in nature,” said S K Au, a spokesperson of the committee that is looking after the restoration.
The sanctum sanctorum of the earth and fertility temple consists of two gods of ancient origin — Thuti Kung and Thuti Fo. Thuti in Chinese means the Earth and the temple is rooted in the Chinese tantra cult. Locals, who are mostly Muslims, call it the Khuda-Khudi temple and revere it. Even the caretaker is a local Muslim villager, who would tell you that Chinamantala — as the place around the temple is called — is feared and respected by locals because of the magical powers of the temple.
“The two gods are older than the temple and Atchew Tong brought them with him from China. At the temple, you will also find the old Chinese custom of fortune-telling through sticks. Our priests live in the temple for the whole of February so that the community members can get their fortunes read through traditional play of sticks,” explained Au.

Monday, October 25, 2010

Indian Chinese community seek 1962 war memorial


Rahul Karmakar
Hindustan Times
Kolkata, October 25, 2010,page 7


People from the Indian Chinese community who were deported and harassed during the 1962 Indo-Sino war have asked the Centre for land at Deoli in Rajasthan to build a monument. Sandstone-rich Deoli is a town in Tonk district, 160 km south of Rajasthan capital Jaipur. More than 3,000 ethnic Chinese, many of them living in Assam at that time and suspected to be close to Beijing, were taken to the Deoli Internment Camp after the 1962 Sino-Indian War — but subsequently forgotten by both countries.

The Association of India Deoli Camp Internees wants the monument as “an acknowledgement of the persecution of the ethnic Chinese” 48 years ago. And as a reminder of “our loss of freedom”.

“The Indian government cannot heal the wounds of the Indian Chinese who lost their homes and kin and were forced to be scattered across the world after the 1962 war,” Assamese novelist-activist Rita Choudhury said. “It can at least honour those who lost their lives in the internment camp.

Unfortunately, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is yet to respond to the association’s letter.

A positive gesture, added the novelist who initiated the move, would go a long way in improving India's image vis-a-vis the minorities.

Choudhury helped many Indian Chinese reconnect with their roots in India during a four-year research across continents for her novel Makam. The book is named after Makum, a small town 505 km east of Assam capital Guwahati.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

A Photographic Journey Of Fritz Hoffmann

Date: 21st October, 2010
Time: 5 P.M. Onwards
Venue: GD Birla Sabhaghar

Fritz Hoffmann will be presenting his life as a photographer, which began almost three decades ago and led him to spend the past 16 years documenting change in China. 13 of those years were as a full time resident photojournalist based in Shanghai. Hoffmann has travelled to every province and municipality in China on assignment for western magazines and as a contract photographer for NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC magazine.

Fritz was also filmed by National Geographic Channel on his recent photo documentation of the Shaolin Monks- The cover story of National Geographic October 2010. The documentary, to be featured in the 'Most Amazing Photos', is scheduled for a global premiere on National Geographic Channel on the 24th of October, 2010.

In light of his past experiences the topic of the talk is to be Development of China: A photographic journey.

Fritz Hoffmann (American) is recognized for his photographic work documenting change in China as a resident photojournalist based in Shanghai from 1995-2008. His pictures have been widely published and exhibited. He is a frequent contributor to National Geographic magazine. Hoffmann’s work has made an important contribution to world understanding of modern China. He was the first foreign photographer since 1949 to receive accreditation from China’s Foreign Ministry to reside outside Beijing, the political capital. He studied Mandarin at East China University of Science and Technology and at Shanghai University Academy of Fine Art. He has photographed in each of China’s provinces and municipalities several times. China continues to be the primary focus of his work.

Prior to his move to China, Fritz established his place as a respected international photojournalist while working with JB Pictures in New York. Under the JB banner, he moved his base of operations to Nashville, Tennessee just before the first term of US President Bill Clinton, which increased interest in the American South. After JB closed, he opened the Network Photographers (UK), Shanghai bureau in 1997 as photo-correspondent. In 2002 Fritz co-founded the online picture library, documentCHINA.

Born in Seattle, Washington, Fritz was raised in a large family with a history of craftsmen. He began photography as a kid hitchhiking across the Pacific Northwest and then printing his pictures in the home darkroom. He honed his photography skills while slinging king crab in Dutch Harbor, Alaska. Fritz supported his early travel and photography with work as a carpenter. Travel experiences steered him to pursue social documentary photography and reportage. He spent 5 years working at newspapers in Seattle, Charleston, West Virginia and Knoxville, Tennessee before entering magazine work.

Friday, October 8, 2010

Nobel Peace Prize 2010

The Nobel Peace Prize 2010 was awarded to Liu Xiaobo (LEE-o SHAo-boh) , the first Chinese citizen to win the prize ( 刘晓波 , born December 28, 1955 ) for his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China .

Liu Xiaobo is a Beijing writer and former literature professor. He was given an 11-year prison sentence on subversion charges on Dec. 25, 2009, after urging Chinese leaders to embrace democratic reforms. He has appealed his conviction to the Beijing Supreme People's Court.

Mr. Liu's sentence, judged by many analysts to be unusually harsh, has drawn criticism from human rights groups, Western governments and writers worldwide. Most regard the chances that it will be overturned or softened as slim.

Mr. Liu was seized by security officials in December 2008 as he and other intellectuals prepared to issue Charter 08, a lengthy manifesto that called on China's Communist Party to uphold individual rights and relinquish its monopoly on power. Modeled on Charter 77, the manifesto drafted by Czechoslovakian rights advocates three decades earlier, Charter 08 eventually garnered some 10,000 signatures before government censors pulled it from the Internet.

After being held more than a year in secret detention and later in jail, Mr. Liu was found guilty by a Beijing court of "inciting subversion of state power." Mr. Liu previously spent 21 months in detention for taking part in the 1989 pro-democracy protests at Tiananmen Square. And in 1996, after demanding clemency for those still imprisoned for their roles in the demonstrations, he was sent to a labour camp for three years.

In addition to helping create Charter 08, Mr. Liu's subversion charges were based on six articles he wrote that were published on the Internet outside of China.



PS :
Charter 08 is a manifesto initially signed by over 350 Chinese intellectuals and human rights activists to promote political reform and democratization in the People's Republic of China. It was published on 10 December 2008, the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopting name and style from the anti-Soviet Charter 77 issued by dissidents in Czechoslovakia.



Wednesday, October 6, 2010

ChongYang Festival


Chongyang Festival is observed on the ninth day of the ninth month in the Chinese lunar calendar, which is also called Double Ninth Day. ( This Year It's on 16 th October 2010 ).

Having undergone a history of more than 2,000 years, the Double-Ninth Day was formally set down as a folk festival in the Tang Dynasty and both Emperors and civilians alike celebrated the festival following the tradition and custom.

As time goes by, the Double-Ninth Day has gradually formed the celebrating conventions of going on a journey, ascending height, inserting cornel, appreciating chrysanthemum, eating Chongyang cake, and drinking chrysanthemum tea / wine .

On this day, people always gather the whole family to spend the festival together.

As the figure "9" also stands for longevity and health in the traditional concept of Han people, the Chinese government set this day ( 9 - 9 ) in the lunar calendar as the " Elder's Festival" in 1989. Now, the Double-Ninth Day has been enlisted as Intangible Cultural Heritage of China. But way back in 1966 the Republic of China (Taiwan) dedicated this day as "Senior Citizens' Day", where the festival is an opportunity to care for and appreciate the elderly.

On the day, people eat the Chongyang cake, alias “huagao” (literally, flower cake), which is the food for Chongyang Festival in the Han Chinese tradition. Dating back to the Southern Dynasty, it is popular in most of the places in China, and as it is made for the Chongyang Festival, thus the name Chongyang cake. The cake is mostly made of rice powder and nuts, but the processing method varies in different regions, mainly baking and steaming, which is still popular nowadays.

The making method and eating custom of Chongyang cake vary in different places, so do its origin and connotations of folklore culture.It is generally recognized that Chongyang cake originated from the Chongyang Festival’s tradition of climbing heights. As restricted by the landform and resources, it was usually not convenient for the common urban residents to ascend heights, so they replaced height climbing custom with eating Chongyang cake (in Chinese, “” [cake] and “” [height] have the same pronunciation).

Some historians suggests that the cultural connotation of Chongyang cake focuses on the character “”, the partial tone of which suggests promotion and high rank.

Many ethnic minorities in South China such as Yi, Bai, Dong, She, Bouyi, Tujia, Helao, etc also keep the tradition of celebrating the Double Ninth Day and eating rice cakes, but the way, the celebration, and the legend behind the festival differ from that of the Han Chinese.

As the festival is right in autumn when the chrysanthemums are in full bloom, the custom of appreciating chrysanthemums and drinking chrysanthemum wine / tea comes into being. Most people drink chrysanthemum tea, while a few strict traditionalists drink homemade chrysanthemum wine. Children in school learn poems about chrysanthemums, and many localities host a chrysanthemum exhibit. Mountain climbing races are also popular .

On the Chongyang Festival, people traditionally pick cornel branches and leaves and seal them inside a small sachet made of red cloth.This cornel is a small evergreen tree with pinnate leaves and small greenish-white flowers. The fruit is purplish red when ripens, with a pungent yet sweet smell. The cornel has medicinal functions like removing toxic cold, relieving pain, killing insects etc. Ancient people believed that wearing the sachet on the body could ward off evil and keep disaster at bay.

Since the ancient times, lots of poets have written down poems with the Double-Ninth Day as a theme. Wang Wei, a famous poet in the Tang Dynasty, can be remembered for his poem entitled On the Mountain Holiday Thinking of My Brothers in Shandong .

Saturday, October 2, 2010

Second Lunar Exploration

China on Friday ( October 1 , 2010 ) celebrated 61 years of communist rule with the launch of its second unmanned lunar probe , Chang'e -2 -- the next step in its ambitious programme for an unmanned moon landing in 2013, with a possible manned lunar mission to follow in 2017 and further exploration of outer space.

A Long March 3C rocket with the Chang'e-2 probe took off from Xichang satellite launch site in southwest China's Sichuan Province at about 1100 GMT ( Beijing time -18:59:57 ). The rocket will shoot the craft into the trans-lunar orbit, after which the satellite is expected to reach the Moon in about five days. Chang'e-2 will orbit 100 kilometers above the moon, compared with 200 kilometers for Chang'e-1.

Chang'e-2, is named after a legendary Chinese goddess .

Chang'e is the Chinese goddess of the moon . Unlike many lunar deities in other cultures who personify the moon, Chang'e only lives on the moon. As the "woman on the Moon", Chang'e could be considered the Chinese complement to the Western notion of a man in the moon .

The satellite will be maneuvered into an orbit just 15 kilometers above the moon. At that point, Chang'e-2 will take pictures of moon's Bay of Rainbows area, the proposed landing ground for Chang'e-3, with a resolution of 1.5 meters. The resolution on Chang'e-1's camera was 120 meters.

If Chang'e-2 sends back high-resolution photos of the Bay of Rainbows, which is considered one of the most beautiful features on the moon, the mission can be deemed a complete success. The geological structure in this area is diverse, so a probe there would have greater scientific value.

Saturday, August 7, 2010

Ang Lee's Restrospective


Venue : Satyajit Ray Film & Television Institute ( SRFTI )
( Main Auditorium )

Date : 20th , 21st & 22nd August, 2010.

Following Five Films will be screened :

20 August, 2010 ( 6:30 pm )
Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (2000) 120 mins.

21 August, 2010
Fine Line (1984) 43 mins. ( 4 pm )
Eat Drink Man Woman (1994) 120 mins. ( 6:30 pm)

22 August 2010
The Pushing Hands (1991) 105 mins. ( 4 pm)
The Wedding Banquet (1993) 102 mins. ( 6:30 pm )


The Mainland China Cookbook
( Random House India , Rs. 499
will be launched in Calcutta at Mainland China, Gurusaday Road on August 10,2010 )

ANJAN CHATTERJEE HAS STIRRED UP THE MAINLAND CHINA COOKBOOK, A COLLECTION OF SIGNATURE DISHES AND A GUIDE TO CHINESE CUISINE

Friday, August 6, 2010

CHOWMAN's Chinese Breakfast

Debaditya Chowdhury , a Xaverian and the Keyboardist of "Lakkhichhara" opens "CHOWMAN " . Chowman will serve Chinese Breakfast of nostalgic teretta bazaar at Golf club road outlet . The breakfast would consist Dim Sum , Sui Mai, Pork Pao, Fish Ball soup, packed in a platter with a pair of chopsticks . The jingle for chowman is aptly 'Bhate Bangaler Pate Chinese'.


LOTUS SUTRA
Bharat Soka Gakkai presents Lotus Sutra an exhibition of rare artifacts, calligraphic and pictorial representations and replicas of birch bark and palm leaf scrolls.

7 -13 August , 2010
At : Rabindranath Tagore Centre, ICCR
9A, Ho Chi Minh Sarani, Kolkata - 700 071
Nanadalal Bose Gallery ( 3rd floor)
11 am - 8 pm

Friday, June 18, 2010

Computex Taipei

COMPUTEX 30th Anniversary, Taipei Computer Association (TCA) presents the vision of the year “COMPUTEX 2010 3D Virtual Tradeshow”

Join in the 3D Virtual Tradeshow, and interact with leading buyers and manufacturers from around the world without any barriers during the period of Computex and until August 31 .

COMPUTEX TAIPEI has become the largest computer exhibition in Asia and the second largest in the world, next to CeBIT in Germany. Each year, key global businesses come to this event to launch their new products. Since a large portion of the businesses in the world have research and deployment centers or production facilities in Taiwan, this exhibition attracts observers, analysts, and journalists of computer and information industries from all over the world to discover and report the latest technologies, developments, and trends.


Industry Overview

After long-term OEM collaboration with major international manufacturers, Taiwan’s IT industry has transformed from simple manufacture to an industry of global logistics in design and manufacturing. From setting up R&D and technical support centers to global production and operation centers, it’s these companies across the island who have made Taiwan's IT industry a driving force in the world market. Taiwan holds many first places in the world, and is way out front in the manufacture of wafers, IC packing, laptops, LCD displays, and data servers.


Position

1.Largest show in Asia, world's leading ICT event, 29th year

2.Taiwan's largest export exhibition, using 4 venues

3.Exhibition with largest number of international buyers (35,000)

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Children’s Film Festival

10th International Children’s Film Festival
( 18 - 22 June, 2010 )
Organized By
Cine Central, Calcutta in Collaboration with Nandan (West Bengal Film Centre),
Eastern Zonal Cultural Centre (Govt. of India) & UNICEF

AT :
Purbashree Auditorium
Eastern Zonal Cultural Centre ( EZCC )
IB-201, Salt Lake City
Kolkata - 700 106
From : 18 - 22 June, 2010
at: 3pm , 4:45 pm , 6:30 pm



C H I N E S EMS C H O O L

Mei May Chinese School in Tangra that is closed since January

The Telegraph
Kolkata , Monday , June 14 , 2010 , Metro


Lone Chinese School Shuts Down
ZEESHAN JAWED


The lone Chinese school in Calcutta has stopped functioning following infighting in the city’s Chinese community.

The 80-year-old Pei May Chinese High School, in the heart of Chinatown in Tangra, hasn’t opened since the Christmas vacation which ended on January 7.

It had been the only Chinese school in the city for years after Moi Kwang on CR Avenue closed down because of lack of students.

Pei May Chinese High School, which had six teachers and around 50 students the day it closed for the winter recess, was run by a committee of the Chinese Tannery Owners’ Association which had built it 80 years ago.

A committee source said Liu Kuo Chao, one of the members, had formed a separate panel last December and declared himself the principal and president of the school.

“He is trying to usurp the property. We won’t let it happen,” said Chen Khoi Kui, a member of the Chinese Tannery Owners’ Association.

Liu, on the other hand, alleged that the earlier committee had no authority to run the school and his was the genuine panel. Liu has also moved court against the other panel.

Pei May school, spread across three bighas and 18 cottahs, had basketball and badminton courts on the premises.

Lee Kuo Leong, 90, who cherishes blurred memories of the school’s initial years, said the Chinese who were settling down in Tangra after the tanneries came up felt the need for an institution where their children could learn their language and culture.

“The members of the tannery association started donating saw dust, scrap and leather pieces to the local Chinese club, which sold the items to raise funds for the school,” said Lee.

Initially, the school had faced problems with the curriculum because there were not enough Chinese books in India.

“The members of the tannery association tried hard and managed to get books from China,” said Lee.

PS : It's not the lone school . There are Four other schools.

Beside Pei May Chinese School, there are the following schools which were teaching Chinese , but due to the circumstances beyond their control, could not continue as Chinese medium school.

These are Sacred Heart Chinese School at 15, Weston Street. Now it is an English medium School. On Saturday and Sunday a Chinese tutorial Class is running for those Chinese who would like to learn Chinese at their own pace.

Chien Kuo school at 15, Damzen Lane. This is continuing as an English Medium School.

Ling Liang High School at P7 Hide lane
and
Grace Ling Liang English School at 21B, Huges Street. Both are running full house with ICSE and ISC.

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

FILM FESTIVAL

Directorate of Film Festivals
and
Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute, Kolkata

presents

China Film Festival 2010 – Chin Chalachchitra Utsav 2010


28th May 2010 – 2nd June 2010

Venue : SRFTI Auditorium , Kolkata

Program Schedule & Time

1. 28th May 2010 at 6:30pm – Film 'Confucius'

2. 29th May 2010 – Films: One Hundred Yuan (4pm), Together (6pm), Feet Lover (8pm)

3. 30th May 2010 – Huaiao Bride in Sangri La (4pm), The Road Home (6pm)

4. 31st May 2010 – Looking for Jackie (7pm)

5. 1st June 2010 – You and Me (7pm)

6. 2nd June 2010 – The Law of Romance (7pm)



MAKUM - India's Shame
The Telegraph
( Calcutta , Sunday, April 18 , 2010, page 9 , " 7 days " )


During the Sino-Indian war in 1962, hundreds of Chinese in Assam were sent to a detention camp in Rajasthan. Some were packed off to China. Prasun Chaudhuri narrates the dark, untold story of their tribulations

It takes us a while to find Wang Shu Shin. We go through the narrow alleys of Makum -a little town tucked deep inside upper Assam's picturesque tea country -in search of the man who, along with hundreds of others, was wronged and disowned by two warring nations. When we finally track him down in Tinsukia, seven kilometres away, he doesn't talk. Instead, he weeps.
The 88-year-old Indian Chinese, now terminally ill, has seen a side of India that few want to talk about. Earlier this week, a book called Makam, written by award winning author Rita Choudhury, broke the silence. The Assamese novel deals with the story of 1,500 Indian Chinese who were picked up from Makum and sent to a detention camp in Deoli, Rajasthan, while India and China battled in 1962.

"Although many of them had been iving in Makum for years and were married to local women, they were accused of being Chinese spies," says Choudhury. "About 1,000 people were forced to leave India." Most were deported to China, while some made their way to the West.

Today, there is little to indicate that Makum once had a thriving community of Chinese, who settled down in the area in the 1830s. The ghostly Chinatown -with its desecrated tombs, skeletal remains of a 150-year-old club and dismantled homes -stands witness to the sufferings of the tiny community .

"They picked up all the Indian Chinese early one morning in November 1962 and packed us in a cowshed," reminisces Wang Shing Tung, former Makum schoolmaster Wang Shu Shin's son, who was then seven years old. "The police said they'd jail us for `safety'. No one was allowed to carry any money, food, clothes or ornaments." Fortunes amassed over four generations -the Chinese had come as tea garden workers but some had become successful businessmen -were decimated in a single day .

It took seven days for them to reach Deoli in a heavily guarded train that didn't stop at any station, lest the "enemies" should escape. Half-cooked khichdi was served on the way , but some of the elderly Chinese couldn't take the trauma and died before they reached their destination. Those deported to China found themselves ghettoised as "capitalists" from India.

"Most of the male members of our extended family were sent to China in three batches," recalls Ho Ko Men, 72, who ran a motor garage in Makum when he was sent to Deoli. "Luckily, the antiChinese paranoia had disappeared when our turn came and we returned."

But when they reached Makum, they found that their houses had either been auctioned as "enemy property" or taken over by neighbours. The Wangs' saw mill had been sealed and its equipment damaged. On top of it, the locals had started treating them as enemies.





People called them names -`Dirty Cheenas, go home' was a common refrain -and women were harassed on the streets. Shopkeepers would keep them waiting or overcharge them. Chinese businesses were boycotted.


People called us names -`Dirty Cheenas, go home!'



Our houses were either auctioned as `enemy property' or taken over by neighbours



They packed us in a cowshed


It's a chapter in Indian history that has been kept a secret. While a senior home ministry official declines to comment, maintaining that the developments were too far back in history , Jagat Mehta, former director, China, at the external affairs ministry who later went on to become foreign secretary, admits that India may have overreacted. "But we are talking from the benefit of hindsight," he says.

"There was a general suspicion against the Chinese though they had been settled in India for a very long time.
They were unfortunately caught in the crossfire," Mehta, 88, says.

The war left the entire Indian Chinese community vulnerable, but the ones who suffered the most were those who lived in the northeast. In Calcutta, about 500-600 so-called "stateless aliens" of the 50,000-strong Chinese community were sent to Deoli.

In Assam, no one was spared. KwaiYun Li, a Canadian author of Indian Chinese origin, says children were taken out of boarding schools and put on the train to Deoli, separated from their families. Some argue that the Assamese Chinese were targeted because they were poorer and less vocal than their counterparts in Calcutta. But the more important reason was that they were from the northeast, which was closer to China.
Paul Chung, president of the Indian Chinese Association, points out that the Chinese army was approaching Assam before the war drew to a close.

Former editor B.G. Verghese points out that Sino-India ties had deteriorated after India gave asylum to the Dalai Lama. "The government panicked and wanted anyone with any Chinese links out of the northeast. It wanted to keep tabs on them."

Of course, internment camps for so called enemies were not uncommon. After the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour in 1941, some 1,10,000 Japanese Americans were placed in camps in the United States.
But incidents such as the American camps were well documented -and found place in several award winning films and books. In 1988, the US government even passed a law apologising for the internment.

In India, on the other hand, the treatment of the Assamese Chinese was seldom talked about. "The survivors are scared to discuss the trauma, let alone fight for legal redress," Choudhury says.

Choudhury, who started researching the subject five years ago, travelled across China, Singapore, Hong Kong, Canada, Australia and the US to interview more than 100 displaced people. In China, she met Mailin Ho, who was 20 years old and pregnant when she was transported to China. Her Assamese husband was sent back to Makum -and Mailin never met him again.

Mailin, whose ancestors had come to India to escape a famine at the turn of the 19th century , dreams of a last visit to her birthplace.

But the Makum of her childhood has changed beyond recognition. Most of the houses in the erstwhile Cheenapatutty -or Chinatown -are gone. A stroll through the hamlet reveals the bare structure of the China Club where the Chinese used to play Mahjong on weekends. The Chinese graveyard lies vandalised in a remote corner, with marble plaques covering the graves removed or damaged. The Chinese-medium school turned into a Hindi school after the war, but telltale Chinese characters are still inscribed on the gate.

Wang Shu Shin returned to Makum with his family in 1966, a year before the camps were wound up. The former inmates remember how they didn't have enough food during their first week in Deoli. Things improved when the Red Cross came with food packets, though the rice and flour were bug infested. The Chinese, however, were allowed to move around, grow their own vegetables and even sell them to local villagers.

But the people yearned to return home, which, for most, was Assam. Social scientist and historian Amalendu Guha, the author of Planter Raj to Swaraj, says the Chinese, originally brought in to grow tea, were well paid and had happily settled down in Assam.

When the inmates returned from the camps, they had to rebuild their lives. Ho Ko Men married an Assamese and opened a new garage in Tinsukia. Wang hu Shin started a restaurant with his wife and later a hairdressing salon. His two daughters have married out of the community, one to a Bengali and the ther to a Gurkha.

Today, there are about 500 Chinese assamese in the state. Some 250 people are in Tinsukia, Dibrugarh and Lakhimur. Some have given up their Chinese names to ward off local resentment.

Many, like Ho Ko Men, speak fluent Asamese. Ho even wears the local dress.
The family celebrates Assamese and chinese festivals, and their food is a mix. A Chinese painting in the typical Assamese middle class living room indicates his roots.

The Assamese Chinese were well assimilated even in the Sixties, but the government saw them as enemies, detaining them under the Defence of India Act, 1962. Human rights activist Sujato Bhadra describes it as a "draconian" law. The law was repealed in 1968 but the Indian Chinese in Assam never got back their property or any compensation.

"The problem with our community is that we didn't represent our case to the government," regrets Chung.

Chung now hopes to unite the Indian Chinese scattered across India and abroad. "After all we have a distinct identity in our unique Sino-Indian culture, reflected in our love for Hindi songs and culinary innovations such as chicken Manchurian and chilly chicken," he says.

Chinese who were interned in Deoli and later migrated to Canada have formed a group too. A member went to a village in China where some Indian Chinese now live. "He ate at a Hakka-Indian restaurant, visited a home where there was an altar for Krishna, and enjoyed a party where many Chinese wore saris and sang Bollywood or Assamese songs," says Kwai-Yun Li.

A few tentative steps were also taken on April 11 when Makum was the centre of discussion at Choudhury's Guwahati book launch. In the audience was 66year-old Alan Wang, another Deoli inmate. "My mother and I were released from the camp, but all male members were packed off to China. We never met or spoke again. Hope they are alive, somewhere on the earth."

For the Assamese Chinese, though, the dark history is a closed chapter that few want to rake up again. "Let bygones be bygones," says Ho Ko Men with a deep sigh.



M A K A M

Samudra Gupta Kashyap
Indian Express
( 15 / 04 / 2010 )



Thursday, April 1, 2010

Taiwan Film Festival


Taipei Economic & Cultural Centre and Directorate of Film Festivals ( Government of India ) is organizing a " Taiwan Film Festival " ( 6th - 9th , April , 2010 ) at Satyajit Ray Film & Television Institute ( SRFTI ) auditorium , Kolkata , from 6 pm .